So I've made my cuts and fabricated the door edges--or at least the curved
parts. I think this is going to work very well. Brad, I'll send you and
anyone else that wants them some pictures of the progress. The tricky part
will be the lower hinge for the ramp. I cut the frame extension off that
holds the stock bumper and black waste hose storage. I need to square them
up and go a little shorter.
I'm going to trim the floor back to half way through the first cross girder
(the floor is trimmed to the edge right now) and put in a steel plate bent
in an L to cover the frame ends and provide a platform for the hinges. The
hinge will be at the edge of the frame and the outside edge of the
door/ramp.
The ramp is going to be a challenge--I want it to be light but it has to be
long too, so it can accommodate the high rise without ripping up the bottom
of the car. The extreme end of the trailer is no place for a heavy door. I'm
contemplating making the rear door just a door (light), and using folded
aluminum arched ramps. http://www.discountramps.com/heavy_duty_runners.htm
the 10 foot long, 12 inch wide folding ones at the bottom of the page look
ideal. Sure wouldn't want to try to build them for that price.
-----Original Message-----
From: owner-fot@autox.team.net [mailto:owner-fot@autox.team.net] On Behalf
Of Brad Kahler
Sent: Monday, May 24, 2004 3:09 PM
To: fot@autox.team.net
Subject: RE: Airstream
Bill and Jim, attached (fot won't get them of course) are two photos of
a trailer someone sent me of a trailer they saw that was modified with
a flat door type rear end. Personally I don't like the looks. Seems to
ruin the sleek lines of an airstream trailer. But that is one way of doing
it.
I managed to find a used "rib" from an airstream the same as ours.
The plan is to remove the back portion of the shell, add the new rib into
that section and create a water tight junction at that point while
pivoting the shell at the very top. Have lots of thoughts on how to do
that as well. All in all I really think the clam shell approach is actually
the easier of the two methods and less costly to boot. Fewer materials
involved and a lot less fabrication I would think.
I will likely use the mechanicals from a vehicle wheel chair lift (getting
one from a friend real cheap!) to raise and lower the hatch. Although
the hatch doesn't weigh all that much (see picture of factory worker
lifting up the tail section) I like the potential added stability of using a
powered hydraulic unit.
Like I said we've been thinking about how to do this for well over a
year now and all the details are coming together nicely. Should be
able to start the actual conversion a little later this summer (of course
at that time it will be a 100 degrees here in Arkansas and I'll be working
inside the aluminum shell....!)
The trailer is now gutted, we'll be using it as a moving trailer to move all
of our shop and then the conversion will commence.
All in all we're both looking forward to the project.
Brad
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